Pipe leads to bomb scare on Jefferson Avenue

Newport News

NEWPORT NEWS — A section of Jefferson Avenue was closed in both directions Tuesday as bomb experts responded to a "suspicious" item found near Riverside Wellness and Fitness Center in Denbigh — an item that turned out to be a discarded automobile part.

"A passer-by said it looked like a pipe bomb," according to Lt. K.A. Rabon of the Newport News Fire Department.

The call at 10:44 a.m. Tuesday led to the closure of traffic in both directions on Jefferson Avenue between Denbigh and Turnberry boulevards for several hours. Members of the Newport News Police Department, the Newport News Fire Department and the FBI set up a command station next door to the Riverside Wellness and Fitness Center in the vacant lot of the former Rock-Ola Cafe.

The suspicious item was located in a mulch bed at the fitness center. Access to the center was closed, and nearby Family Care of Denbigh and an Express Lube were evacuated, according to Rabon.

A robot was deployed to inspect the item, which appeared to be a pipe measuring about 8 inches long and 2 to 3 inches in diameter, sealed at both ends. Bomb experts detonated the pipe at 12:35 p.m., causing a blast of white smoke to shoot into the air.

The robot was used to examine the item a second time to determine whether it would need to be detonated again. Emergency officials then discovered there was nothing inside the pipe and that it actually was a part that had fallen off a delivery truck.

The pipe was used to keep the mud flap in place on the truck, Rabon said.

Traffic on Jefferson between Denbigh Boulevard and Turnberry Boulevard was reopened around 1:20 p.m.

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